Ron’s Short Review: When we know what we’re looking for we miss a lot of relevant information.
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Peter Drucker often spoke of being effective versus being efficient. His simple definition was: Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Much has been written by leadership and management gurus as well as Drucker himself about this concept and you can find many wonderful pieces on the web about this subject. But I would like to focus on one particular aspect that I often see relating to this topic; the development of people.
I have had many leaders and managers (including myself) say something to the effect of “It’s just quicker to do it myself.”
Often the reason or excuse is that:
- I don’t have time right now to teach someone.
- It would take me just as long to teach them as it would to just do it myself.
- And, even after I take the time to teach them, they won’t be as efficient or effective as if I just do it myself.
That’s being efficient: Get the job done. Get it done now. Get it done “right”.
Notice that getting the job done efficiently is not necessarily being effective. We live in such a rapidly changing world that we can no longer afford to be dependent on efficiency. Efficiency is the price of admission these days. Over the last decade or more I have observed my clients wring every ounce of efficiency out of their production, supply chain, and logistical systems. Efficiency simply keeps you in the game. Efficiency is no longer a game changer.
However, when it comes to people leadership and management, much of our effort is still focused on efficiency, not necessarily effectiveness. I posted an earlier blog on victim versus creator. Highly efficient systems can induce a victim environment by dictating every aspect of getting things done efficiently. Effective/creative systems tend to be messy, particularly on the front-end. Our effective desires and measurement systems don’t often have the tolerance for starting down that effective/creative path. But, without an effective/creative approach we won’t survive. The world is changing too rapidly to depend on efficiency.
Image Source: Werner Bartmann, Creative Commons
There is constant talk of reinvention. Companies need to reinvent themselves. People need to reinvent themselves. I live in a state (Michigan) that needs to reinvent itself.
How does a state reinvent itself? The state of Michigan has been associated with the auto industry for over 100 years. During the peak of the auto industry, Michigan was one of the wealthiest states in the nation. Today it is one of the poorest and the only state that has lost population between the last two census reports. I’ve often tried to think of what Michigan would look like if Henry Ford, R.E. Olds, and many of the other pioneers of the auto industry had started in Ohio (or some other state) rather than Michigan. I have to assume that we would have an economy and state government geared to a level of a different and maybe less robust industry. We also have the cereal industry started by W.K. Kellogg and C.W. Post. Our tourist industry is outstanding and we even have a thriving oil and gas industry. But… the state would look much different today had we not had the auto industry. How do we rethink who we are?
I can only draw on my personal experiences when I think about reinventing ourselves individually. My career seems to have progressed in decades. For the first ten years of my working career I worked in the engineering/construction business, building large power plants around the country and learning the project management business. Then one day I saw my first microcomputer and decided that this little box (actually a 35 pound “luggable” machine in the early days) was going to change our lives. Six months later I was developing software for the new and growing microcomputer industry. After ten years of working with computers and software I had to ask myself the age old question “what do I really want to do when I grow up” and came to the conclusion that I had felt fulfilled working in two very different industries because my goal everyday was to create (and be) the best leaders and develop the best functioning teams. I believed that if I could grow myself, help grow the people and develop good team dynamics, the business would take care of itself. My developing vision was helping leaders and teams continually improve their performance. I thought that would be fun if I could get up and do that every day. Thus began twenty years (and counting) of consulting and coaching in the leadership development and team building arena.
What fulfills you? Have you stopped to ask yourself that question? It may be scary and risky but it will also help you to continually reinvent yourself. A necessity in today’s rapidly changing world.
Ron’s Short Review: We spend a lot of time doing things. How much of it is actually relevant?
Image Source: Ricardo Bernardo, Creative Commons
I know, I know, I haven’t posted a blog in forever. While that issue has been nagging at me for weeks it took the gentle reminder of a close friend that I had neglected this duty (thanks Armin).
Several things strike me about this situation:
1) I actually needed the reminder from a friend to respond to the nagging
2) For me, blogging is a difficult task that requires discipline to accomplish
3) I’m reminded almost every day from clients that time management is an issue
4) Even if doing something is enjoyable, you may not be good at it
Many years ago I was attending a professional golf tournament. At the time Tom Watson was at the peak of his career (which is interesting to say when he recently came within a stroke of winning the British Open (THE Open) even though he’s in his sixties). But, at that moment in time there was probably no one in the world who knew more about the game of golf and in particular his ability to play the game. However, as I watched Tom play that day, he began to have problems with his drive on the last several holes. He developed a draw which turned into a nasty hook. After his round I watched as he gathered his coach and headed for the practice range. Although I was out of hearing range, you could tell by the body language what was going on between Tom and his coach. Tom was animated and angry while his coach was trying to both listen and calm Tom down at the same time. Finally the coach asked Tom to hit a few balls while he watched. Tom’s first attempt delivered a severe hook that nearly missed the driving range on the left. Tom immediately reacted with animation and anger. Once again the coach tried to calm him down and asked him to make minor change in his stance. Tom acquiesced and addressed another ball. This time while the ball still faded to the left, it did not follow the path of the severe hook. Tom nodded and hit a few more balls which all followed the same path. The coach then suggested another slight change to Tom’s grip. The next shot was magnificent. The ball boomed off the club face, started out low and true and slowly climbed into the sky almost reaching the limits of sight. Tom simply turned and smiled at his coach. For the next half hour Tom launched ball after ball true and straight down the driving range.
Even the best in the world sometimes need that outside observer to slightly adjust their already plentiful skills to keep them tuned up and on the right path.
Do you have that trusted confident that will give you the feedback to keep your shots flying true and straight? We all need them.
Why are so many feeling that our Work-Life Balance is out of whack? In this series, I will explore four categories of issues that contribute to the feeling (and actuality):
Several years ago I learned some very interesting lessons about time management. I was working with a high level leadership team, all vice-presidents and above. While we were offsite spending time on leadership development issues one of the VP’s on the team finally stopped the process and said something like the following:
“Ron, we think all of these leadership issues you’re trying to teach us are wonderful and important, but until you help us with our time management problems, we can’t even think about putting more effort into improving our leadership skills. We’re all working at least 60 hours a week as it is. We’re destroying our health and our families. Help us with our time management first and then we’ll be ready to learn new leadership skills from you.”
He was right. They were worn out and suffering. I turned to a time management model put forth by Steven Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
His premise was that once we fulfill all of the tasks in Quadrant I (both urgent and important) we tend to go on to tasks that fall primarily in Quadrant III (Urgent but not necessarily important).
I sent the team off to record where all of their time went over the next two weeks. When they returned with the record of approximately 120 hours each had expended over the last two weeks, we listed every activity for each participant on a flip chart and posted it on the wall. Then we went through a very interesting exercise. Line-item by line-item we went through each chart and identified into which quadrant it should be placed. A very interesting pattern began to emerge. On several of the line-items, the owner of the sheet would say that he/she had spend a number of hours producing a particular report (as an example) that was urgent but not important and they intended to stop performing that task in the future. However, once stated, there always seemed to be a challenge from the room. Someone would say, “If you don’t produce that report, I can’t get my job done. It must be placed in the important row.”
But, when we began to look into what data in the report was required, there often seemed to be a simple solution to the second persons needs that still eliminated the effort needed to produce the report (it’s on the web site, a quick email, it can be found in another location, etc.) The problem was solved and the bulk of the work eliminated.
Once we completed all of the “negotiations” around the room and everyone had agreed on the quadrants into which all work had been placed, a horrifying statistic emerged. Only 20% of all the work fell into the “Important” row. One VP hung his head and said:
“Do you mean to tell me that I just spend 24 hours of meaningful work over the last two weeks and all the rest was just thrashing?”
I’m afraid so.
The lessons that I have learned from this experience (conducted now several times) include:
- It’s difficult (impossible) to determine on your own how much of your work falls into which quadrants. There is always someone else that needs to be brought into the negotiations.
- It takes team support to stick with the decisions. Even after everyone agrees that you have some quadrant III work that can be dropped, there will be those who still want you to do it. It takes a team to help you say “no”.
- If more than 70% of your work falls into quadrant I (both urgent and important), you’re headed for burn out and failure somewhere down the line because you are not doing enough important but not urgent work (prevention, production capability, relationship building, big picture thinking, etc.)
The links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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Why are so many feeling that our Work-Life Balance is out of whack? In this series, I will explore four categories of issues that contribute to the feeling (and actuality):
I have to share a story one of my colleagues told me about Work-Life Balance (Connectedness). She is working with a client that has a culture that is starting to burn people out. No Work-Life Balance. Another consultant had suggested to the leadership team that the situation was getting bad enough that they should do something to help people regain some balance. So the leadership team put out a memo that no one was required to answer e-mails after 8:00pm.
WHAT?
How about a memo that says everyone is required to stop sending e-mails after 6:00pm? No one is going to put their head on the chopping block in a fast paced culture and not read e-mails after eight. But, if you put the restriction on the sending end then the culprit clearly stands out. And my guess is the leaders are the culprits.
I started working with the head of a large division (400+ people) several years ago and he had a reputation of being a hard task-master, expecting people to work above and beyond the call of duty. One of the first things I observed is that he would send emails any time of the day or night and any time on the weekend. His response to the situation is almost identical to the explanation I always get. He would say
“I don’t expect people to respond to me immediately, that’s just my work style. As soon as I think of something I’ll write an email (sometimes to himself) and send it off immediately. I don’t expect my people to respond at night or over the weekend, that’s just my crazy work habits.”
The first thing I asked him to do was learn how to use the delay-send function in Outlook and not let evening emails go out until early the next morning or weekend emails go out until early Monday morning. Within weeks people were making comments to me like:
“I don’t know what you’ve done but things sure are calmer around here these days. It’s a much better place to work.”
Email can be a great tool. Just be careful how it’s being used and pay attention to the unintended consequences.
Image Source: Jed Sullivan, Creative Commons
Why are so many feeling that our Work-Life Balance is out of whack? In this series, I will explore four categories of issues that contribute to the feeling (and actuality):
I started my first real job in 1969. That means that my working life has now spanned 40 years. That 40 years has roughly been distributed with 10 years in the engineering/construction business, 10 years in the software industry, and the last 20 years as a consultant to a whole range of industries including pharmaceutical, auto, food, high-tech and others. And I must admit that I don’t see people working any harder or longer hours today than I have at any time over the last 40 years. So why is there so much talk about the lack of Work-Life-Balance?
Connectedness!
In the 70’s we communicated by phone or fax. Think about a vacation in Hawaii when the only mode of communication was phone or fax. Not much communication happened with the east coast in particular. It was a real vacation.
I carried my first Compaq “luggable” computer in 1983 (28 pounds). I used email for the first time in 1985. I still remember the day I sent an email to a client in Scotland and he responded within the hour… from Japan! Astounding!
The internet? That didn’t really happen until the mid 1990’s.
I bought one of the very first Blackberry’s in 1999 when they had been on the market for only a few months. It took 5 years for them to sell their millionth Blackberry. Think about that, it was only five years ago that there were a million Blackberrys and virtually no other smart phones. Today, iPhone alone sells nearly 5 million a quarter. And don’t get me started about Facebook and Twitter.
We never get away from it. 24/7 we’re connected. Maybe it’s because I spent much of my career without all of this modern connectedness that I’m a little better at managing it rather than it managing me (my wife will laugh at that statement). But, different than many of my younger colleagues, I believe it is ok to shut it off, not answer that phone, don’t respond instantly to that incoming message. I believe it’s because we don’t shut off this connectedness in the evening when we should be focused on family, or weekends when we should be focused on R&R and getting that job-list done or on vacation when we should be re-creating that our work-life balance seems out of whack.
Don’t get me wrong, I know there are many of you out there working long and hard through difficult times. But this has been going on forever. The difference today is that we never get away from it. Not for a minute, not for a day, and certainly not for a week or more.
Think about it and let me know what you think or what your experiences have been.
I’m going to follow with a few more blogs about Work-Life-Balance. Besides this 24/7 connectedness, I see a few other issues that seem to impact our sense of balance.
Image Source: Carol Schaffer, Creative Commons
Are you bored? I know that if I were to ask any of my clients (or even myself) that question the answer would certainly be, “Are you kidding? I’ve never been busier in my life!”
But, the opposite of bored is not busy, the opposite of bored is purposeful and focused. We can be very busy but without purpose and focus. That’s boring.
We mentioned the seven deadly sins a few blogs ago. Isn’t it interesting that one of the seven deadly sins is sloth. What’s sloth? Most of us think of it as lazy. It’s actually a close match to the definition of bored. Being bored (busy or otherwise) is being slothful. It’s a sin. It does you and no one else any good.
Years ago when I was in the engineering/construction business, there was a person on one of our job sites who would head for the equipment shed every morning, pick up a bucket and a mop and head off in a particular direction with a very purposeful stride. And then an hour or so later, we would see him heading in another direction, bucket in hand, mop over his shoulder with that same purposeful stride. However, after a few days of observation we began to understand that he wasn’t heading any place in particular. He had just figured out a cleaver way of avoiding any work other than walking around. We fired him. He was being slothful.
Most bored activity is not that visible. People start early with a steady pace and go home at night having been active all day. Unfortunately, they are also going home bored. It’s the job of leadership to help people connect their daily activity with the overall purpose and focus of the company (division or function). One of the signs of a great corporate culture is that people understand the connection between their personal goals and objectives with the vision, mission and strategic direction of their work group.
Have you provided purpose and focus for each individual on the team you’re leading?
Have you figured out your own purpose and focus?
Or are you just busily bored?
Thanks to Pastor Bob Lynn for his thoughts and teachings on the concept of Boredom.
Most of us know about the seven deadly sins:
Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
Pride
And I must admit that while I’m not guilty of all of the sins all of the time, I have been guilty of all of the sins some of the time. But, are you familiar with the four Cardinal Virtues?
Prudence
Justice
Restraint
Courage
I’ve been spending some time looking at the four and in particular the first of the virtues, Prudence. One of the intriguing definitions of Prudence is:
“The perfected ability to make right decisions.”
What better descriptor of corporate leadership could be found? The perfected ability to make right decisions!
As I began to explore the concept for prudence further, it presented itself as a process. Prudence breaks down into the functions of:
Deliberate
Decide
Do
These are my words, not the words of the great scholars that describe the process, but what a great process to reach right decisions.
Give it good deliberation
Use a great and well defined decision making process
Go out and execute
Since 2000, one of the “deadly sins” that I’ve seen become more and more prevalent in corporate cultures is the attitude of quick deciding instead of quick learning leading to good decisions. With a quick deciding attitude, teams will ignore, steam roll, belittle or dismiss any behavior that appears to be or feels like it is slowing down the deciding process. In other words, a quick deciding mentality approach is anti-deliberation. It just doesn’t lead to prudent or wise decisions.
What we don’t have time for in our corporations today is non-prudent decisions. We must regain the technique of good deliberation to make great decisions quickly.
Let me know what you think. What is preventing our corporate leadership teams from spending the right amount of time deliberating so that we can then make good decisions? What are the roadblocks?
Image Source: Peetje2, Creative Commons
I remember reading an editorial written in a very prominent newspaper about the loss of manufacturing jobs. The editorial was well written and was very fact based. It was questioning the wisdom of allowing another country to dismantle the very equipment required to support the local textile industry, ship it to another country where they paid a much lower wage and then ship the finished goods back at a much cheaper price than could be produced locally. The author was wondering if it were wise to let our desire for cheap goods supplied through a large retailer destroy the very manufacturing that was the base for much of the country’s economy.
In the news recently was the fact that the local textile industry lost a half-million jobs in 2007 and is expected to lose another half-million jobs in 2008.
The first editorial was written in England in the late 1700’s about the textile industry setting up shop in New England, America. The recent news article was written about the job loss in India as the textile industry moves on to cheaper parts of the world like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Has the textile industry been the early indicator of manufacturing shifts around the world since the time of the early Egyptian empire? Maybe all of the hand wringing about the loss of our manufacturing base is simply a natural evolution of global manufacturing cycles that have been in place for hundreds or thousands of years.
There are a couple of things I find fascinating about this shift and loss of jobs. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan so I’m very close to the US Auto industry. At the same time that we are experiencing this loss, General Motors and other manufacturers are searching for highly skilled engineers and innovative mechanical minded people to keep up with the complex design and manufacturing end of their business. And with the adjusting of the US dollar on the world markets, it is now becoming cheaper to do complex manufacturing in the US than it is in other parts of the world. What I worry most about all of this is the complete failure of our public education system and the diminishing numbers of US students attending our higher education systems. In an era when graduating from High School, going to work in the manufacturing sector and experiencing a nice middle-class livelihood has just come to a crashing halt, we need to be fixing our education system so that we can better compete in a rapidly changing global economy.
More on “The Concept Economy” next time.
Ron’s Short Review: Engagement is the hot topic these days.